


A Sloppy Stitch

by AithuzahFic (veritably_mad)



Series: Healthy Friendships Prompts [2]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-16
Updated: 2014-11-16
Packaged: 2018-02-25 13:48:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2624024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veritably_mad/pseuds/AithuzahFic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gwen tries to teach Merlin how to sew. (Operative word: <em>tries</em>.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Sloppy Stitch

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [frellingaround](http://frellingaround.tumblr.com/) on [tumblr](http://aithuzah.tumblr.com/post/102749718721) for [this series](http://aithuzah.tumblr.com/tagged/healthyfriendships).

“ _Ow._ ”

Gwen set down her barely-begun embroidery. She hadn’t had the chance to do more than a few stitches at a time. “Again?” she sighed, reaching for Merlin’s hand. He’d already stuck his finger in his mouth to suck on the new needleprick wound, but he readily pulled it out again to let her see.

"Again," Morgana said from the other side of Gaius's chambers without bothering to look in their direction. She was going through her sword routine with a blunt blade, something she claimed to find relaxing. Only Arthur seemed to agree about that assessment. 

"What am I doing wrong?" Merlin whined as Gwen turned his hand to examine the punctures. A few of them were deep enough that droplets of blood kept welling up and making Merlin thankful that he’d chosen to sew one of his  _red_ shirts for his first attempt, and the rest of them still felt sore. 

Gwen slid off the bench that they had claimed for their work, and opened a cabinet to fetch a few bundles of bandages from the pile there. “You need to keep your fingers out of the way of the needle  _before_ you push it through the cloth. And pay attention to what you’re doing! Your thoughts can’t wander too far when you’re a beginner, or you’ll end up with a sloppy stitch and bleeding fingers.”

"How am I supposed to hold it all in place so it’s lined up, then?" As soon as Gwen had let him go, his mouth went right back to his hand. How, exactly, he had managed to stab his  _palm_  was a mystery even to him.  “You make it look easier than it is,” he said, voice garbled as he spoke around his skin.

“ _I_  have had years and years of practice.  _You_  only started today.” Unrolling a stretch of cloth, she turned back to him, and hesitated. “I’m usually the one fetching the bandages, not applying them,” she said with an uncertain frown. 

Merlin set his shirt aside, abandoning the effort for the day. The wobbly, uneven stitch he had managed needed to be pulled out and redone, either by him and another series of painful attempts or Gwen and fifteen minutes.

“You'll be fine," he soothed, taking a long strip from her and wrapping it around the finger that had taken the most abuse. Honestly, such small wounds didn't need bandaging like this, but it was his turn to be the teacher. "Sewing is  _much_  harder than this. All you need to do is wrap it around and tie it so it won't fall off. Like this, but I can't tie it one-handed, so you'll have to do that bit."

As Gwen wrapped his palm and each finger with unnecessary thoroughness and a furrowed brow that made Merlin smile, Morgana finished her routine. She leaned her practice sword against the wall by the door and joined Merlin and Gwen at their work table, stealing a scrap of cloth from the sewing basket to wipe the sweat off her face. 

"D'you want to give it a go?" Merlin asked, wiggling the fingers of his free and (mostly) uninjured hand at her. 

"Lessons from a medical professional such as yourself? I'm honored," she said dryly, but took a cloth from Gwen anyway and hummed cheerfully as she swaddled his entire hand until he couldn't part his fingers. She tugged the knot taut and tucked the ends into a fold. 

"I'm an expert," she declared. 

"That - that's a bit too tight," he said with a wince, but he couldn't bend his other fingers enough to undo the knot himself. Gwen's efforts had left his right hand encased as if he were wearing a rather stiff glove. "Could you...?" 

She couldn't, in fact. Even with Morgana's long fingernails and Gwen's work-strong hands, the knot was tied too tightly to be picked apart, and Merlin waved them both off with a laugh.

"How am I meant to get anything done today like this?" he lamented, flopping over the table with his useless hands covering his face. "I suppose I'll have to tell Arthur and Gaius that I've been incapacitated by the two of you."

"We have a council meeting this evening," Morgana reminded him. She and Gwen left him to his sprawl to look for a small knife, scissors, something they could use to cut Merlin free. "You need to be ready, too. Can't keep your hands under the table the  _entire_  time." 

"Sure I can. Or I can  _not go_ , and if anybody comes to get me I'll yell at them to stay out of my room because I'm horribly ill and hideous to see." He appreciated being on the council now, he  _did_ , and he would never shirk his duties...but sometimes Leon's long, monotonous reports made him fantasize. "Listen. I've been practicing my death-moans - " 

Gaius, naturally, returned from his rounds just as Merlin let out a long, melodramatic wail, and was at Merlin's side as fast as the old man could make it across the room.

"What is it? Are you hurt?" When he saw the bandages on Merlin's hands, he dropped his kit to the table with a clatter and rolled up his sleeves, trying to see the injury without disturbing the wrapping. "My boy, what happened? Please tell me you weren't trying that fire spell again, I  _told_  you it was volatile - "

"Nonono, Gaius,  _no._  I'm fine," he interrupted his mentor's fretting, pulling his hands away and holding them up in surrender. "We were just, errrm..."

"Gwen tried to teach Merlin how to sew and he kept stabbing himself with the needle," Morgana said. Of course Merlin could trust her to be blunt. "So we tried to patch him up, but now we can't un-patch him."

Gwen hid her blushy smile behind her cupped hand and added, "We may have overdone it a little." 

Gaius sat down heavily on the bench beside Merlin, then treated all three of them to his renowned raised-eyebrow Glare of Exasperation.

"One day, I am going to die of panic thanks to your mischief and the trouble you manage to get yourselves into," he said wearily, though they all knew him well enough to hear the fondness in his voice. "In the meantime, there are scissors on the third shelf down where Gwen is standing, and once Merlin stops hiding his face, he can help me teach you how to bandage a wound  _correctly._ "

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: "Healthy friendships: Gwen teaches Merlin how to sew, and he is absolutely awful at it. He ends up with lots of little pinpricks from the needles, and Gwen & Morgana bandage up his hands (sweet h/c scene). They go a little overboard until Merlin's hands are wrapped up like a mummy's. Gaius is upset when he sees him, because he thinks Merlin has seriously burned himself. When Gaius finds out the humiliating truth, he laughs at Merlin (and maybe schedules some first aid lessons for the girls)."
> 
>  
> 
> Kudos, comments, and constructive critiques are always welcome and much appreciated.
> 
> (I'm greedy for feedback, I admit it.)


End file.
